Chief Discipliner Sociology

At the turn of the twentieth century the systematic forced removal of Aboriginal children from their mothers, families and cultural heritage was commonplace. There were several reasons that the government and white society used to justify the separation but the prevailing ideology of nationalism and maintaining Australia for the ‘whites’ was the over-riding motivation and justification for their actions[1]. Progressive sciences such as anthropology espoused such theories as eugenics, miscegenation, biological absorption and assimilation which legitimated governmental policies relating to Aboriginal affairs[2]. It was

There is a famous Australian film called “The Rabbit Proof Fence” released in 2002 and is based on the book “Follow the Rabbit Proof Fence” written by Doris Pilkington Garimara to tell the story of the Stolen Generations from the Aboriginal point of view. It is based on the true story of the events of the author’s mother’s life and raises awareness of the plight of the Stolen Generations. The film follows three young “half-caste” girls. Molly Craig, 14, her sister Daisy, 8 and their cousin, Gracie, 10, were living peacefully in Jigalong, Western Australia.

In this essay we will try to provide a brief overview of educational issues of Aboriginal communities in Australia and Victoria and the elements that influence the educational outcomes of young Aboriginal people, such as culture and contemporary challenges. In addition to this, the inclusion of Aboriginal content in the Victorian curriculum and classroom practices will be explored as well as contemporary government policies.

A comparison of the text, ‘Us Mob, Walawurru’ written by David Spillman and Lisa Wilyuka and the film “Rabbit Proof Fence” directed by Phillip Noyce reveals that social attitudes in Australia between the 1930’s and the 1990’s have changed enormously. In the film ‘Rabbit Proof Fence’ set in 1931, Aboriginal children, more specifically half-castes –who are children with an Indigenous and Caucasian descent- are taken away from their families and to ‘Moore Rive Settlement’, where they are trained to fit into mainstream Australian society and be domestic servants. Later, the novel “Us Mob Walawurru” which takes place over the time period between the 1960’s to the 1990’s, demonstrates the changes that have taken place over the last fifty years. European Australians are more accepting and respectful of indigenous culture and the government has changed the laws regarding Terra Nullius to give the Aboriginal

Throughout the early 20th century, the Australian public was led to believe that Aboriginal children were disadvantaged in their communities, and that there was a high risk of physical and sexual abuse. Aboriginal children were being removed in order to be exposed to ‘Anglo values’ and ‘work habits’ with a view to them being employed by colonial settlers, and to stop their parents, families and communities from passing on their culture, language and identity

Government policies authorising the removal of Aboriginal children have caused extensive and unrepairable damage to every aspect of Indigenous culture. It could be argued that the emotional turmoil which occurred as a result of this policy, is greater than any physical abused ever faced by the Australian Aboriginal people. The act of child removal would be a scarring experience for parents and children of any race or culture. This policy had a particularly damaging impact on the Indigenous people as their identity is based within a set of strong traditional guides and teachings. These lessons are not recorded, but can only be taught through speaking with elders and learning through a connection to others within the mob, connection to art forms

The rabbit proof fence is the central motif. It runs from North to South of Western Australia and was built to keep rabbits away from farmland. It is very symbolic as when it was built it kept the Aboriginals in one place and therefore shows how they were restricted in their movement, unlike the freedom of the spirit bird. It symbolises the division between the Aboriginals and the Europeans. The girls are pictured as frightened rabbits trapped on the wrong side of the fence, the same feeling as

Education is fundamental to growth, the growth of the individual, and the growth of a nation. Anthropologically this can be seen from the earliest of developments of human societies where practices emerge to ensure the passing of accumulated knowledge from one generation to the next. In the centuries since the invasion and colonisation of Australia in 1788, colonist authorities and governments have dominated the making of policies regarding most major aspects of Australian life, including the lives of Indigenous Australians. The enactment of these policies and legislation, whether targeted at society as a whole or directly at education, has had significant and most often negative causal impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, resulting in not only poor educational outcomes, but the loss of cultural identity, the development of serious issues in health and wellbeing, and the restriction of growth of Aboriginal communities. Moreover, there has been an ongoing pattern of the adoption of ill-informed policies in Australia, resulting in these poor outcomes and cultural decimation. Aboriginal people have developed a wariness, a mistrust, and even an attitude of avoidance to engage with non-Indigenous officials and those who they associate as their representatives, i.e. personnel working within

‘Rabbit Proof Fence’ was the story of a 3 young Aboriginal girls who were taken from their homes because they were ‘half castes’ and then their long walk home following the rabbit proof fence. The idea of the government taking children from their homes and placing them into the care of white people in the hope of them losing their cultural beliefs was stronger. This idea of them being changed was evident with quotes such as “This is your new home. We don't use that jabber here. You speak English” providing the idea of whites being dominant through their values.

According to Durkheim, Social fact or social phenomenon are the main subject matter of sociology. He said in one of his pieces that social fact must be studied distinct from the biological and psychological phenomenon. Social order is the trend of behavior being used to exercise power over another person. It has become rules and regulations that have been set up by some authorities to be obeyed by another group of people who are being undermined in a society, it is a situation that oppressed people and limits them from their liberties. When people go through these situations they cannot function the way they are supposed to function because they are limited by their freedom. These social orders are not only laws but rather certain norms created by the authority to put a whole race into a situation where they are very far from freedom of speech, movement, and knowledge. African Americans are an example of a race that has been through discrimination at workplaces, schools, community etc. They are one race which has been a label or put in a class where the situation will never permit you to climb the ladder of success. Although you might have all the certification, qualification, the best schools, etc. but the fact that you came from the poor class or the lower class, it becomes very difficult for the Caucasian people to give you the opportunity you deserve, because of this, the citizens of American have been grouped into different classes which are upper, middle, working,

The recent Australian film, Rabbit Proof Fence, similarly condemns the social, political and cultural mores of colonial and post-colonial Australia in relation to its past treatment of indigenous Australians. Like To Kill a Mockingbird, it too, is set in the 1930’s and reflects similar attitudes and values whites have to black people. The film is a true story based on the book by Doris Pilkington Garimara, the daughter of one of the half-caste children in the film who, together with two other Aboriginal girls, was forcibly removed from her family in Jigalong, Western Australia. These children form part of what is now known as the “Stolen Generation”. They, like many others who lived in the first part of the 20th century, were the victims of the official government assimilationist policy which decreed that half-caste children should be taken from their families and their land in order to be made “white”. The policy was definitely aimed at “breeding out” Aboriginality, because only half and quarter caste children were taken.

Although the fence was built to keep rabbits out of the farmland, it became a symbol of repression, as when it was built, it kept Aboriginal people form interacting with the white population. It was a way of dividing and repressing the Aboriginal people. This is true in other parts of the world as well. For example, the government of Belin built a wall that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. The Berlin wall divided families who found themselves unable to visit each other. Many East Berliners were cut off from their jobs. The Aboriginal families find themselves unable to raise or visit their own children.

“Sociology is the study of interactions within, between, and among groups; and these group interactions encompass all areas of human behavior” (Cargan and Ballantine, 2007, p. 1). According to the Arizona State University program description of the Sociology undergraduate degree, “Sociology is the study of the organization and development of societies and the institutions within them” (Arizona State University, 2017). Specifically, the key objectives of the discipline of Sociology include, but are not limited to: analyzing societal issues, social phenomena, and the processes of social construction in both the historical, and modern settings; the application of various sociological theories; evaluating the institutions of family, education, religion, government, and the economy, as they relate to the larger context of society (Carlson, 2016); and analyzing societal changes and their significance within the complexities of society and cultures (Harrison, 2017). Additionally, Sociology is a discipline within the social sciences category. According to the American Sociological Association (2008), the study of the social sciences was precipitated by the need to respond to rapid social change with the development of science, technology and the economy. Historically, the discipline of Sociology became institutionalized between the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Likewise, the American Sociological Association (ASA), the

This textbook has multiple parts to it, one being Residential Schools. The text talks about the two types of residential schools and how the industrial schools were eventually closed over time due to the government saying it was costing too much since the people there were not learning much more than they would at the boarding schools. It goes into some detail as to what was being taught at these schools as well. The text goes on about how people believed that the schools would help them conform and were indeed helping to assimilate them into the culture they wanted them molded into. Which then goes onto talk about when they were eventually sent back home they did not know how to live properly in an Aboriginal community when they had been taught

It states in the book that, “the European colonist saw the indigenous peoples as primitive and their land as terra nullius, owned by no one, and therefore freely available to settler” (pg. 450). It was not until the 1930s that rights were set aside for the Aboriginal population, but they were still marginal and without access to services and skills that needed to be provided. They were an invisible population amongst the other people groups by not being counted in the census or having the right to vote. They were thought to be one cohesive culture; however there were other distinct cultures within the Aboriginal people. A way that Australia tried to intermix them into society was to take the children from aboriginal families and place them in to white foster care homes and institutions. This was called the “Stolen generation” and it was not until the 1990s that the Australian government spoke out for this population. Multiculturalism has been a growing concept that still needs to be worked on today in every